Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Uncle Ted

I cannot even begin to tell you my family’s obsession with all things “Kennedy”

Irish Catholic with seven kids, my folks rather fancied themselves “Kennedyesque” (without the trust-funds or the Hyannis Compound of course)

I can remember my Irish Grandmother literally praying the “rosary” because JACKIE had been “ex-communicated” when she married a divorced man. (ummm,well,Nana, it was ARI ONASSIS)

And when questioned by me why she still said JACKIE KENNEDY when the world said JACKIE ONASSIS; my own mother said: “The Church never recognized the second marriage & neither do I”

Growing up the only “artwork” in our home was a framed painting (print?) in a place of honor; called “My Beloved Johns” depicting JESUS with his arms around JFK & Pope John XXIII (and if any of you have a copy of that I would LOVE to buy it from you)

When Jackie died, I sent a “Mass Card” & received in return a lovely Thank You Card from John & Caroline, which though of course it was a sort of mass mailing; I was still impressed because they had probably received millions of cards.

I met John-John once when I was a waiter in New York. He was so handsome that I simply could not look directly at him, But when he made a small request that I change the music we were playing, I promptly declined. “It’s CHER, John, it’s “Heart of Stone” and you’re in a gay restaurant! Sorry!” I still regret that!

When John-John’s plane went missing I took off from work & sat riveted by the TV until they recovered the bodies. Then I cried. And if I ever hear that “I Will Remember You” song one more time, I’ll throw myself into the ocean off Cape Cod.

Which brings me to the sad news about Ted Kennedy today.
Yea, I know, Chappaquiddick, the womanizing, the Good Friday Sexual assault (by his nephew) in Palm Beach, the famous Roger Mudd interview where he couldn’t articulate a reason he wanted to be President and sat silently for an eternity, the sad tortured life of his former wife Joan (the most beautiful of the Kennedy girls…JFK used to call her “the dish”) but you know what? TED KENNEDY IS THE UNITED STATES SENATE. That is why Sens. Byrdd, Leahy & Schumer seemed so devastated today. He is called “The Liberal Lion” And if you are an American alive today there is not one piece of legislation that has benefitted you or protected you from some harm, that he did not have a significant role in or help to bring about. It’s that simple. And he is, as I read earlier today, “our bridge to Camelot” As long as he lives and remains; so too do the goals & ideals & dreams of that brief time long ago, when we were young and the country was young, and we were literally going to the moon & beyond. He is, as he said, the physical embodiment of the song that says that “the hope never dies & the dream lives on!”